Glenn Martens brought a more refined yet irreverent approach to Diesel for Fall Winter 2025-2026, introducing one of the season’s standout silhouettes: the drop-waist. Borrowing from the visual language of low-rise jeans, Martens translated the effect into coats and cocktail dresses with suspended skirt constructions—echoing his past work at Y/Project. The results, whether in tweed, houndstooth, or trompe-l’œil prints on jersey, had an unexpectedly sophisticated appeal.

Despite a more polished undercurrent, the collection retained its signature Diesel attitude, underscored by eerie black and white contact lenses and crudely spray-painted smiles on some models. The backdrop—a massive inflatable structure covered in graffiti contributed by nearly 8,000 artists worldwide—added to the brand’s rebellious energy.

Martens leaned into Diesel’s playful eccentricity with flesh-toned cable knits featuring built-in chest hair, furry dresses reminiscent of Betty Flintstone, and distressed fabrics pushed to extremes. Denim, a house cornerstone, appeared in both glazed and matte finishes, offering new textures to the label’s signature material. Alongside these offbeat elements, the collection also featured sleek, minimalist coats with a futuristic edge, bubble-shaped puffer jackets, and puckered shirts that nodded to Y/Project’s now-defunct era.

The show ended on a cheeky note, with models wearing shirts photo-printed onto squares of fabric pasted onto their torsos, paired with jeans sliding low enough to reveal a hint of plumber’s crack—perhaps a playful tease at Martens’ upcoming role at Maison Margiela. While the timing of his debut at Margiela remains unannounced, his continued direction at Diesel ensures that the brand’s mix of bold experimentation and self-aware humor remains intact.